The Role of User Centered
Design Process inUnderstanding Users
Andrea F. Kravetz
VP User Centered DesignElsevier
August 2005

Agenda• User Centered Design: what is it and why isit important?
• User Centered Design at Elsevier• The User Centered Design Process• Scopus Case Study2

User Centered Design Defined• An approach to designing usefulness and ease ofuse into the total customer experience withproducts and systems.
• A design philosophy in which the emphasis is on
the user and through which a high level ofis achieved.
• A typical UCD process has three major phases ofthe work – understanding, design and evaluation
with iterations that cycle between each phase.
• Focuses on usefulness, ease of use, ease of3

Always remember…
“What people say,what people do, andwhat they say they do
are entirely differentthings.”

Examples:Predicting sales ofmail-order cosmetics-- Margaret Mead
Anthropologist

Automobile
design4

UCD at Elsevier

5The Elsevier User Centered Design Team6

Elsevier Offices

Amsterdam,
The Netherlands

Dayton, Ohio, USALondon, England,
United Kingdom

New York, NewYork, USA

7

Usability Labs at Elsevier• Usability Labs in offices in London, Amsterdam,Philadelphia, Dayton, Texas, St. Louis. More labs
be added next year
• Ability for recording sessions– Picture-in-picture of customer interacting with product– Audio/video recoding of focus group & groupinteractions• The usability lab has an observation room for
involvement & opportunities to watch customers
first hand interact with products.

89Elsevier’s UCD-related publications

10

Mission
Utilize user-centered design principles to help
create easy-to-use electronic products thatuser satisfaction and meet business needs.
As members of product teams we work to:• Understand users, their tasks, and their work
environments• Design user interfaces that enable users toachieve their goals efficiently• Evaluate product designs with users throughout
the product lifecycle

11Standard User Centered Design Process• For best results begin
as early as possible
the productdevelopment cycle• Iterative and rapid …
allows for quickchanges• Work with productmanagement,
developers … andusers!

12

Understand•This is the most important step: Know the user, their tasks,
their goals– What informational resources do they currently use?
– What are their organizations procedures?
– What other tools and people do they work with?
– What are their key job tasks and how do they accomplishthem?
– What problems do they encounter daily?

•UCD Deliverables in this phase include:– Visiting Users• Observations / Interviews– Field Studies– User Profiles / User Modeling– Online Questionnaires– Competitor Analysis (UI & functionality)13Understanding / Modeling Users• Involve users early and often• Identify target user group• Investigate users, their work, and theirresearch, interviews, questionnaires, etc.
• Analyse data to identify priorities• Organize data in various formats

14Electronic Information Retrieval- A Day in the Life MorningLunchAfternoon

After Hours

LibrarianResearcher

Student

Practitioner

Significant generalizations; Use of Elsevier electronic products is much smaller

15

Field Study - a deeper understandingof user information behavior

16

Goals of Field Study–

Understand how scientists in different disciplines seek & use
information in the research context–

Gather field data to build frameworks for analyzing research
info-seeking, for learning about users & better product–

Inform direction & decision-making for new products–

Reduce development risks by deeply understanding
information use across disciplines

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A typical desk – Limited space for information work18

Typical Lifecycle of Research “Project”(Where 4 of these activities are located)

Info Use Score

Determine asystem / substrate- Literature

10

Literature Check what's
been done,
techniques

9

Write article

87
6

Flush out
experiments543

One exp leads
to a new result2
Submit Review cycle

1

Spring 02

Late Spring

Initial expsMake clones(Key Test)SummerDo experiments

Reach criticalmass

Esp important if abstract
deadline near19

Design• Design to fit the user and their tasks ensuring that theyefficiently and easily complete the tasks• Decisions based on user data
• Basic Design Principles are followed:– Simple good, complex bad -Accessibility– Consistency-User Control (undo, exit)– User orientation-Task Efficiency– Aesthetics (graphics)-Clear visual presentation• UCD Deliverables in this phase include:• Executive summaries-UI Specification• UI Prototype-UI Style Guide• Visual Design20

Does Design Matter?

vs.

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Does Design Matter?
• Fast Company; June 2005
– Masters of Design-Special Issue• Business 2.0;April 2005
– Bottom Line Design Awards• Business Week; May 17, 2004
– The Power of Design• Forbes, The Economist, Financial Times,
Strategy+Business, Harvard Business
Wall Street Journal, Forrester…
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Organizations emphasizing Design• Apple• Whirlpool• Disney• Proctor & Gamble• Charles Schwab• Samsung• Nike• Sony• Herman Miller• Dell• FedEx• BMW• Microsoft• Ikea• Coca Cola

• H&M

• Target• Steelcase• Intel• Bose• Google• Segway23

Evaluate•Evaluate the User Interface, not the user•

Key measures– Efficiency– Effectiveness, Error Rate
– Satisfaction•UCD Deliverables include:• Usability testing (observations)• Competitive testing• Usability inspection• Online questionnaire (opinions)• Web log / usage analysis• Usability testing is a key method of validating our productwith customers

24How the User Centered Design
Process was used to Understand theUser in the Development of aCustomer Focused ProductA CASE STUDYSCOPUS: A New Navigation Tool

FocusedwebinformationWorld’sLargest
Abstracts
Database

Full textarticles

Academiclibrarysources26

Benefits of evidence-based design• Improves the user experience• Ensures that what is developed is useful• Gives ownership where it belongs: theeventual users• Reduces the need for librarians to train
users on the products they buy

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Development Partners• New program where Elsevier partners with users
involve them throughout the design process• 21 institutions, 300 researchers/librarians, 4continents, 15 user test sessions conducted• Includes involvement through– Field studies– Interviews– Observation activities– Usability Testing– Surveys/questionnaires– Focus groups28

Major Tasks of Researchers• Finding (new) articles in a familiar subject field• Finding author-related information– Articles by a specific author– Information that would help in evaluating a specificauthor• Author contact information• Staying up-to-date• Getting an overview or understanding of a new subject field

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Evolution of the Refine Results box
September 200030

Evolution of the Refine Results box
November 200031

Evolution of the Refine Results box
March 2003

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Evolution of the Refine Results box
Current Design33

How Evidence-based Development Changed
Product34

How Evidence-based Development Changed
ProductCited-by: how to
get attention ofthe user?
Non-intrusive
versus“in-their-face”

35How Evidence-based Development Changed theProduct• Citation tools:– graphical vs.
matrix-like– Trendy vs.
“spread-sheetlike”

36

Reactions during trials and roll-out:users
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What the Librarians said

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Understand the User
If you would like further information on how to understand the user or theUser Centered Design Process, please contact me at:Andrea Kravetz
a.kravetz@elsevier.com
Elsevier
8080 Beckett Center
Suite 225
West Chester, OH 45069
USA+1-513-942-6196

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